Huh?Opioids from vending machines for harm reduction

Huh?Opioids from vending machines for harm reduction

B.C. overdose crisis: Opioid in vending machines idea may be a valuable tool

While theft is a major concern of any opioid distribution system, anyone buying stolen vending machine pills would at least be getting safe drugs, says expert.

The Canadian PressTHE CANADIAN PRESS
Published on: December 22, 2017 | Last Updated: December 22, 2017 9:05 AM PST

Making a safe opioid available in vending machines may be the next harm reduction tool to fight the deadly overdose epidemic, says the executive medical director of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. HANDOUT / VANCOUVER SUN

Dr. Mark Tyndall said he envisions a regulated system where drug users would be assessed, registered and issued a card to use in vending machines to obtain hydromorphone, a painkiller commonly marketed under the brand name Dilaudid.

“I’m hoping that it’s kind of like supervised injection sites,” he said of the program that could begin as early as next March. “At first it sounded a bit off the wall and now it’s pretty well accepted.”

Funding to expand access to hydromorphone would first be used to distribute pills through supportive housing units that also dispense methadone and suboxone as well as through a nurse at supervised injection sites before they are sold through vending machines, Tyndall said.

“People could pick these drugs up at supervised injection sites but there’s no reason you couldn’t use vending machine technology to do that. So people would show up, have their card, click it in and get a couple of pills.”

Hydromorphone pills dissolve well in water and Tyndall said he expects most people will grind them up and inject them.

A small part of the funding will come from a three year, $1 million Health Canada grant that includes patients in Alberta, Tyndall said, adding the machines could also be placed in other areas where drug use is prevalent, as well as near health clinics in remote communities.

“We don’t have really anything to offer people who are dying around the province in smaller communities, where sometimes they don’t even have a doctor who can prescribe methadone and certainly will never have a supervised injection site,” Tyndall said.

“You’d have to ensure there’s some security system because we don’t want people kicking these things in and stealing all the pills, and we don’t want situations where people are taking out big quantities and selling them on the street.”

Tyndall said while theft is a major concern of any opioid distribution system, anyone buying stolen hydromorphone pills would at least be getting safe drugs instead of those that could be laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl, which has been linked to hundreds of deaths across Canada.

Safeguards would also include supplying two or three pills, up to three times a day, to prevent users from being targeted by criminals, Tyndall said.

“We’ve done some focus groups and most people feel they’d be quite happy with two Dilaudids, eight milligrams, three times a day,” he said.

However, people who are assessed as doing well could eventually obtain a two- or three-day supply of pills, much like take-home methadone, Tyndall added.

High-dose injectable hydromorphone is currently provided to chronic substance users at a Vancouver clinic called Crosstown, the only such facility that also dispenses diacetylmorphine, or medical-grade heroin to patients who have repeatedly failed to kick an addiction to illicit drugs after multiple drug substitution programs.

“This is not an addiction medicine response,” Tyndall said, adding new approaches need to have an impact on the overdose epidemic. “We need to make this is pubic health thing, much like vaccine programs.”

The B.C. Coroners Service has reported that 1,208 people fatally overdosed in British Columbia between January and October this year. It said fentanyl was detected in 999 of the confirmed and suspected deaths so far in 2017, an increase of 136 per cent from the same period last year.

Ontario’s Health Ministry said the province has about half a dozen remote locations where prescription drugs are available through dispensing machines. Patients consult in real time with an off-site pharmacist using two-way video monitor in the machine.

Allan Malek, chief pharmacy officer of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said Tyndall has floated an innovative idea during a national overdose crisis but it would have to be adequately monitored.

Re: Huh?Opioids from vending machines for harm reduction

Administrator

I can't find the article to post the link but yesterday I was reading in the Vancouver Sun that at some of these places that offer methadone and subxone on a regular basis for these addicts that a good percentage are using other stuff like heroin and fentanyl to supplement their high.They have some machine at safe injection site a tester for contaminants in the drugs to test the street drugs and a really good percentage (I can't recall the exact) like in the 90 percentile contains fentanyl.Scary.

Re: Huh?Opioids from vending machines for harm reduction

Administrator

I don't know they are doing something right. 36M people in Canada and only 1200 OD deaths...and they call it an OD Crisis. I have to give props to Canada, they have taken addiction by the horns and have implemented many innovative ideas. More like the European model, this seems wacko, but reading about it one knows they have taken all issues and possible problems into account.

they want to add methadone and suboxone to the vending machines

The way I see it.... the more people that don't like me, the less people I have to please

Re: Huh?Opioids from vending machines for harm reduction

That 1200 is only 1 province BC(state) not the whole country.BC,s population is about 5 million more or less but has always had a 'drug culture'. And the most heroin addicts but that seems to be true of any port city near an ocean.
BTW I like your vending machine.The 1 in the article is a bad example it has bottled water in it.Also Chivis you asked me a while back about any places prescribing pharma heroin for addicts.This articles says the only 1 in Vancouver ('Crosstown ')that does and what pharmacy grade heroin is called.(diacetylmorphine).

Re: Huh?Opioids from vending machines for harm reduction

Administrator

This post was updated on .

All the stats aren't in but they predict 4,ooo opioid deaths.I live in the western province of Alberta which borders BC and if I recall there has been over 500 opioid deaths for 4 million so combined with BC that's 1700 deaths from 9 million people.Most of the population lives in Toronto or Montreal area which those 2 provinces hold 20 million people so looks like the brunt of the opioid deaths are BC and Alberta,the West per capita.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/opioid-deaths-canada-4000-projected-2017-1.4455518Also they cut back on opioid prescriptions a year ago here big time (don't tell the Cartels hahaha)even for people that require it for pain.My boarder who has lots of metal and can barely walk got cut off hydro morphine (after being on for 4 years)and was given T3's and a prescription for medical pot which he says actually works better for the pain surprisingly but had to suffer through withdrawals for awhile.His doctor said he could get his licence pulled so obviously they have read the doctors the riot act.
Here's a recent article on the Crosstown clinic that gives out free government heroin in Vancouver,this from a U.S. News source in Washington state.
http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/why-vancouver-bc-is-investing-even-more-in-safe-injection-sites/685002543#